May 22, 2003

Box Score

ALBUQUERQUE - The 18th-ranked and top-seeded UNLV baseball team took a 6-0 lead in the opening inning and cruised to a 12-5 victory over New Mexico on Thursday at the 2003 Mountain West Conference Championship. The win improves the Rebels to 43-15 on the season. New Mexico is eliminated from tournament play and finishes with a 34-26 record.

Robbie Van (8-4) picked up the win for the Rebels. He threw 7.0 innings, giving up four runs off eight hits. He struck out five and walked six. Matt Wagner finished the final 2.0 innings, giving up one run off three hits with two strikeouts.

New Mexico's Kris Gross (6-4) suffered the loss. He gave up six runs off seven hits in 0.1 innings of work.

Patrick Dobson hit a three-run home run in the first inning and finished the game 2-for-3 with three RBI and three runs scored.

Garett Shitanishi went 3-for-5 with a run scored.

Six other Rebels contributed a pair of hits each. Brent Johnson extended his consecutive-game hitting streak to 13 games with a 2-for-4 outing. He drove in one run and scored twice.

Robert VanKirk and Eddie Gill each finished the game 2-for-5. Gill had two RBI and a run scored, while VanKirk scored once.

Fernando Valenzuela went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.

New Mexico was led by Chris Alexander, who went 3-for-5 with two runs scored.

"I felt that we came in with a good plan against (Kris) Gross," said UNLV head coach Jim Schlossnagle. "He pitches similar to (James) Vermilyea. We talked about making him throw his breaking ball for strikes. Although we got to him earlier, Dobson's home run was a two-strike homer. If he didn't hit the ball like that, it could have been a different game. We just kept scoring. We never really gave them a chance to catch the momentum."

UNLV will play Friday at 10 a.m. (PT) against the winner of the BYU vs. San Diego State game. Jake Vose is the scheduled starter for UNLV.

Fans can listen to Friday's game on KSHP 1400 at 9:55 a.m. (PT).